Climate change & agreements

Answer: (b) plan of action outlined by the countries of the world to combat climate change

Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) were the climate action plans that countries submitted under the UNFCCC in 2015, ahead of the Paris conference (COP 21). Each country set its own emission and adaptation goals, and under the Paris Agreement these became Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

• ✓ (b) INDCs are climate pledges made under the UNFCCC. India submitted its INDC on 2 October 2015, promising to cut the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35 per cent by 2030 from the 2005 level.
• ✗ (d) The Sustainable Development Goals (2015) are tracked through voluntary national reviews at the UN, not through 'nationally determined contributions'.
• ✗ (c) Capital subscribed to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is simply called a capital subscription; it has nothing to do with the climate term INDC.

Remember · INDC (2015, pre-Paris pledge) → NDC once a country joins the Paris Agreement; every Party must prepare, communicate and maintain successive NDCs (Article 4.2).

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) 3 only

Only the third pair is right. 'Annex I' is a category of Parties under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992), used again in the Kyoto Protocol; Certified Emission Reductions are the credits issued under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism. The Cartagena and Nagoya Protocols belong to the Convention on Biological Diversity and deal with biosafety and benefit-sharing.

• ✗ 1. Annex I lists the developed countries and economies in transition that took on specific mitigation commitments under the UNFCCC. The Cartagena Protocol (2000) governs the safe handling and transport of living modified organisms.
• ✗ 2. Certified Emission Reductions come from CDM projects under Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol. The Nagoya Protocol (2010) is about access to genetic resources and fair sharing of benefits from their use.
• ✓ 3. Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol (1997) created the Clean Development Mechanism, under which projects in non-Annex I countries earn CERs that Annex I countries may use towards their targets.

Remember · UNFCCC/Kyoto: Annex I, CDM, CERs, emissions trading, joint implementation. CBD protocols: Cartagena (biosafety, LMOs) and Nagoya (access and benefit-sharing).

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) 3 only

Launched under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (2008), which has eight missions, the Green India Mission is about forests: protect, restore and enhance India's forest and tree cover while helping the country both adapt to and mitigate climate change. It is neither a budget-accounting reform nor an agricultural programme.

• ✗ 1. Valuing environmental costs and benefits in national or State accounts is 'green accounting', a separate idea; it is not what the Green India Mission does.
• ✗ 2. Raising farm output is the domain of agriculture programmes (NAPCC's own farm mission is the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture), not of the Green India Mission.
• ✓ 3. GoI describes GIM as aiming to protect, restore and enhance India's diminishing forest cover and to respond to climate change through adaptation and mitigation; its goals include better forest/tree cover on 5 million ha and better quality on another 5 million ha.

Remember · Green India Mission (NAPCC mission): forest/tree cover up on 5 million ha, quality improved on another 5 million ha, more ecosystem services, forest-based livelihoods for 3 million households.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

REDD+ is mainly a climate tool that pays countries to cut emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, but the UN-REDD Programme's own material says well-planned REDD+ action also gives wider benefits: conserving biodiversity, strengthening ecosystem resilience and advancing goals such as poverty reduction. All three statements are therefore correct.

• ✓ 1. UN-REDD lists biodiversity conservation among the environmental benefits REDD+ can deliver when it prevents loss or degradation of forests.
• ✓ 2. Biodiversity kept intact through REDD+ helps strengthen ecosystem resilience.
• ✓ 3. UN-REDD says REDD+ actions with wider benefits can help countries progress on national goals such as biodiversity, green growth and poverty reduction.

Remember · UN-REDD (run by UNEP, FAO and UNDP) backs REDD+: cutting forest emissions while also protecting biodiversity, building forest resilience and supporting livelihoods and poverty reduction.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) It is an international accounting tool for government and business leaders to understand, quantify and manage greenhouse gas emissions

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol is a set of accounting standards, guidance and tools, built by the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, that businesses and governments use to measure and manage their greenhouse gas emissions. It is not a treaty and not a UN or World Bank programme.

• ✓ (a) GHG Protocol provides standards, guidance, tools and training for business and government to measure and manage emissions; the World Bank itself follows its guidance for its own emissions accounting.
• ✗ (b) It is not a UN scheme of financial incentives; it comes from two non-governmental bodies, WRI and WBCSD. Incentive-based forest schemes belong to REDD+.
• ✗ (c) A treaty ratified by countries and setting emission limits would be like the Kyoto Protocol; the GHG Protocol has no ratification and no national targets, and no 2022 deadline exists.
• ✗ (d) It is a measurement standard, not one of the World Bank's REDD+ funds.

Remember · GHG Protocol = the world's most widely used greenhouse gas accounting standard, from WRI and WBCSD. It measures emissions; it is not a treaty and sets no targets.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1 only

Only statement 1 is correct. India and France launched the International Solar Alliance at the COP21 climate conference in Paris in 2015, but it is a coalition of sunshine-rich countries that join voluntarily, not a body that includes every UN member.

• ✓ 1. The Alliance was launched in 2015 by India and France at COP21, the UN Climate Change Conference held in Paris.
• ✗ 2. When launched, the ISA was a coalition of sunshine-rich countries, and joining is a choice made by each state. It has around 120 member and signatory countries, well short of all UN members.
• • Since then Since the ISA Framework Agreement was amended in 2020, every UN member state is eligible to join, but the Alliance still does not automatically include all of them (ISA, PIB).

Remember · ISA: launched by India and France at COP21, Paris (30 November 2015); headquartered in India; a voluntary alliance, open to all UN members only since the 2020 amendment.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), Ch 1 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 2 only

Only statement 2 is correct: the Paris Agreement's temperature goal is to hold warming well below 2 °C and pursue 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. Statement 1 is wrong because the Agreement entered into force in 2016, and statement 3 is wrong because the finance goal is USD 100 billion a year, not 1000 billion.

• ✗ 1. The Agreement entered into force on 4 November 2016, the thirtieth day after 55 Parties covering at least 55 per cent of global emissions had deposited ratifications (Article 21), not in 2017. It was opened for signature from 22 April 2016 to Parties to the UNFCCC, and every country joins by its own signature and ratification.
• ✓ 2. Article 2(1)(a) sets the aim of holding the rise in global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5 °C.
• ✗ 3. The Paris decision urges developed countries to scale up finance towards jointly providing USD 100 billion a year by 2020 for mitigation and adaptation. The figure is 100 billion, not 1000 billion.

Remember · Paris Agreement (adopted 12 December 2015, in force 4 November 2016): well below 2 °C, pursue 1.5 °C; developed countries' goal of USD 100 billion a year by 2020.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 2 only

Statement 2 is correct and statement 1 is wrong. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are part of the UN's 2030 Agenda, adopted in 2015 and to be achieved by 2030, and the UN decided to develop them at the Rio+20 conference in 2012. The Club of Rome's 1972 contribution was a book, Limits to Growth.

• ✗ 1. The idea of SDGs was launched by UN Member States at the 2012 Rio+20 Conference, not by the Club of Rome. NCERT says the Club of Rome, a global think tank, published Limits to Growth in 1972, a warning about the depletion of the Earth's resources.
• ✓ 2. The 2030 Agenda, adopted by the UN in 2015 with 17 Goals and 169 targets, commits countries to working for its full implementation by 2030.

Remember · SDGs: 17 goals, adopted by the UN in 2015, target year 2030; idea launched at Rio+20 (2012). The Club of Rome's 1972 work was Limits to Growth.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Contemporary World Politics, Ch 6 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error